Community leaders weigh in on the most pressing social and philanthropic issues of the day. GivingCity welcomes OPINION essays for consideration. Submit your essay to opinion@givingcity.com.

First, I’ll acknowledge that award nominations can be arduous. There’s a form to complete, essays to write, supporting documents and links to gather, deadlines to hit. When you think about the amount of work involved, Read More

Today, Cyber Monday, you’ll probably see a number nonprofits promoting AmazonSmile, the “charitable” version of Amazon that gives half a percent of your purchase to the charity of your choice. I don’t blame charities for Read More

We see it happening all around the city. Arts organizations being forced from their spaces due to rising property values that become increasing and unsustainable rents. Often, there is little recourse for the organizations to Read More

I believe good journalism can drive change. But the way journalists cover disaster recovery, and particularly, the way they are scapegoating the Red Cross, will damage the way we respond to disasters and hinder any Read More

A Seton Mind Institute expert explains why psychiatric disorders are dangerous takedowns. Words matter. At some point we all may have casually tossed a psychiatric adjective to describe a situation or person. There is usually Read More

The people I write about, the social workers, the volunteers, the activists and community leaders…. We’re tired. We’ve been tired, and we’ve been telling you this whole time that things have got to change. We’ve Read More

The April 13th front page of the Austin American-Statesman featured three tragically related stories: 1. Haruka Weiser, an 18-year-old University of Texas student is sexually assaulted and strangled – her accused assailant a runaway from Read More

Especially for Muslims that have brown skin, wear a scarf, or have a name that is identifiably Muslim; these are hard times. The top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination have made statements that, Read More